1.
Analyzing Global Developments: Deng Xiaoping and China's So-Called Economic Miracle
How do China's GDP overall growth rates and per capita growth rates compare with those of Britain during the industrial revolution and hte United States from 1850 to 1989? How do you account for any extreme difference?
Why have Deng Xiaoping and his successors been able to resist demands for democracy and maintain the dominant political position of the Chinese Communist Party?
Based on your reading, compare Gorbachev's perestroika reform movement with Deng's vision for economic and political reform in China.
Do you think the Chinese are likely to maintain high growth rates over the long run, given the experience of Britain and the United States? Explain your answer.
2.
Primary Source 21.3 Why Gender Matters (2000), World Bank
Describe the effect of tuition on girls' school attendance.
Evaluate the relative importance of barriers to girls' education posed by culture on the one hand and poverty on the other.
What effect does expanding educational opportunity for girls have on boys?
CHAPTER 21
Globalization
1970–2000
Copyright © 2021, W. W. Norton & Company
Following the collapse of the three-world order, new global markets and communications networks integrate the world but also create deep inequalities.
New technologies and vast population movements make global culture more homogeneous.
Globalization, supranational organizations (like the World Bank, the European Union, and the United Nations), and religious fundamentalism erode the power of the nation-state.
Global Storyline
What transnational forces eroded the power of the nation-state in the last third of the twentieth century, and how did they do so?
What was the relationship between global migration, new technologies, and the spread of cultural influences during and after the Cold War?
How did globalization and population changes affect the environment, and vice versa?
To what degree did globalization change societies? How similar and different was globalization after the Cold War as compared with earlier forms of globalization?
Focus Questions
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Globalization: the development of integrated worldwide cultural and economic structures
Movement of families, groups, goods, and ideas across boundaries
International financial organizations address world financial issues
Multinational corporations transform local markets into international ones
Discontent, religious revival drive divisions among and within world’s regions
Globalization
The late twentieth century witnessed an acceleration in global connectivity, a process called “globalization,” or the development of integrated worldwide cultural and economic structures.
Four key aspects of globalization are:
Movement. Families, groups, ideas, and goods traversed boundaries that formerly divided national, ethnic, or religious communities.
The prominence of international financial organizations., which addressed world financial issues.
The rise of multinational corporations, which transformed local markets into international ones.
Division. Even as the world became more economically integrated, discontent and religious revival helped drive divisions among and within the world’s regions.
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Old global orders weaken
Empire
Three-world order
Globalization forms a new architecture of power, promoted by the United States
United States also shaped by globalization
Transnational forces challenge the power of the nation-state
Global Integration
Globalization, which began in the 1970s, is still unfolding. This process took shape as previous global orders weakened. By the late twentieth century, European empires were in retreat, and even the three-world order that replaced them had begun to break apart. The collapse of the Soviet Union ushered in a new architecture of power that created a single world marketplace in which capital, commerce, culture, and labor flowed unobstructed.
The United States was undoubtedly a major driver and beneficiary of these changes. Some might see globalization as America’s attempt to reshape the world in its own image. But the United States was also profoundly changed by increased contact with the rest of the world.
In fact, the new transnational forces undermined the power of the nation-state itself. People began to identify less with nation-states and more with subnational or international movements. At the same time, supranational organizations like the European Union and the IMF, as well as increasingly open borders, challenged the nation-state’s autonomy.
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Collapse of Soviet Union ended Cold War
Capitalist First World gave up its last colonial possessions
Formerly colonized Third World’s unique vision of “third way” vanished
World integrated by markets, capital, and technology, rather than forced loyalty to imperial masters or rival superpowers
Removing Obstacles to Globalization
The collapse of the Soviet Union ended the Cold War. At the same time, the First World gave up its last colonial possessions, and regimes dominated by White settler colonists gave way. As this happened, the Third World’s vision of a “third way” also vanished, as a capitalist global order emerged that was integrated by markets instead of loyalties to empires or rival superpowers.
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Mounting costs
The largest peacetime accumulation of arms in world history occurred during the 1970s and 1980s.
Despite efforts at arms control, expensive programs such as “Star Wars” mired both governments in debt.
Both sides faced pressures that strained the Cold War order.
By the 1980s, the Soviet Union was caught in a military stalemate in Afghanistan.
The western public was divided over the nuclear weapons buildup of the 1980s.
Japanese economic strides challenged American and European industries’ ability to provide employment and profits.
Ending the Cold War
The three-world order began to deteriorate in the mid-1970s: the Second World collapsed, First World empires lost their colonial empires, and the Third World’s dream of a third way disappeared.
The Cold War had limited the possibilities for global exchange. Robust exchange existed within rival blocs. But, for many countries, pressures from the superpowers limited their exchanges with other countries. Strong nationalist and religious movements pushed against the Cold War framework. Superpowers attempted to control or inflame these forces at great cost.
Rivalry was enormously costly. The largest peacetime accumulation of arms in world history occurred during the 1970s and 1980s as both superpowers stockpiled conventional and nuclear weapons. Despite some efforts to control the arms race, costly programs put both governments in debt. One such program was Reagan’s “Star Wars” initiative, a plan to use satellites and space missiles to protect the United States from incoming nuclear bombs.
Other pressures strained the Cold War order. In the 1980s, the Soviet Union sent troops to Afghanistan to prop up a new regime, only to be mired in a costly conflict against insurgents backed by the United States. The resulting stalemate damaged the Soviet image both at home and abroad.
In Europe and North America, the population was divided over the nuclear buildup of the 1980s. At the same time, Japanese economic development challenged American and European industries, as unemployment soared.
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Planned economies employed the entire Soviet population but failed to provide sufficient consumer goods or health care on par with the west.
Authoritarian political structures relied on deception and coercion rather than elections and civic activism.
The selection of a Polish pope, John Paul II, inspired massive resistance to communist rule.
Solidarity, an independent union, formed to bring down the socialist state in Poland.
The Soviet Bloc Collapses (1 of 3)
The Soviet bloc eventually collapsed. Soviet governance had built up numerous tensions over the decades. While planned economies guaranteed full employment, they could not provide sufficient consumer goods or health care and benefits that equaled those found in western countries. At the same time, people chafed against authoritarian governments that relied on deception and coercion.
One of the events that sparked the downfall of the Soviet Union was the selection of a Polish pope, John Paul II, in 1978. The pope supported mass strikes at the Lenin Shipyard in Gdańsk. The strikes led to the formation of an independent trade union, Solidarity. Solidarity eventually undertook to end socialism in Poland, rather than reform it. Although the movement was initially repressed, Soviet officials feared it would not go away easily.
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Mikhail Gorbachev, elevated to leadership of the Soviet Communist Party in 1985, implemented perestroika/reconstruction reforms.
Allowed competitive elections for Communist Party posts, relaxed censorship, allowed civic associations, etc.
He also launched major arms control initiatives.
Withdrew troops from Afghanistan and told eastern European leaders they couldn’t count on Moscow’s intervention to prop up regimes
The Soviet Bloc Collapses (2 of 3)
The most consequential factor in the Soviet downfall was the reform program launched by Mikhail Gorbachev, who took power in 1985. The reforms were called perestroika, or “reconstruction,” and were aimed at loosening up political controls and reducing arms buildup. He withdrew troops from Afghanistan and notified eastern European powers that Soviet troops would no longer guarantee their regimes.
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Map 21.1 | Collapse of the Communist Bloc in Europe
Map 21.1 | Collapse of the Communist Bloc in Europe
The Soviet Union’s domination of eastern Europe ended precipitously in 1989. The political map of eastern and central Europe took on a different shape under European integration.
What significant event in many communist countries signaled the collapse of communism?
In what part of eastern and central Europe did the most political instability and conflict occur?
According to your reading, why did the end of communist rule cause the reshuffling of political boundaries in the region?
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Civic groups pressed to eliminate, rather than reform, the system.
Eastern European states declared intention to leave Soviet orbit; some union republics pushed for independence.
Hard-liners staged a failed coup to arrest these developments in 1991.
Boris Yeltsin rallied opposition and faced down hard-liners.
Elites divided up state property, became oligarchs of post-Soviet order
Collapse of communist regimes changed maps of Europe and Asia
Caused ethnic strife and civil war in Yugoslavia
The Soviet Bloc Collapses (3 of 3)
Although Gorbachev’s reforms intended to improve socialism, they contributed to its demise. Civic groups did not advocate for improvements to the system; instead, they called for its elimination. Eastern European states declared their intention to leave the Soviet sphere, and some USSR republics pushed for independence.
Some hard-liners, attempting to hold on to the old order, staged a failed coup in 1991. Boris Yeltsin, the president at the time, rallied opposition and blocked the coup. Eventually, elites divided state property among themselves.
The collapse of communist regimes transformed the maps of Europe and Asia. In some areas, like Yugoslavia, the political vacuum produced ethnic strife and civil war. Many of the new countries in eastern Europe joined the European Union.
The Cold War was relatively brief, but communism exerted a profound influence on countries around the world. Ultimately, however, it was unable to keep up with the demands of global rivalry and the accelerating race for consumption and technology.
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Map 21.2 | The Breakup of the Soviet Union
Map 21.2 | The Breakup of the Soviet Union
The Soviet Union broke apart in 1991. Compare this map with Map 17.5, which illustrates Russian expansion in the nineteenth century.
Which parts of the old Russian Empire remained under Russian rule, and which of its territories established their own states?
In what areas did large migrations accompany the breakup, and for what reasons?
According to your reading, how did the breakup of the Soviet Union change Russia’s status in Europe and Asia?
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Remnants of colonial rule remained in southern Africa where Whites clung to centuries-old notions of their racial superiority over non-Europeans.
The last holdouts
African nationalist demands led to a hurried Portuguese withdrawal from Angola, Guinea-Bissau, and Mozambique in the mid-1970s, ending formal European colonialism in Africa.
International pressure, neighboring African states, and Robert Mugabe’s guerrilla movement brought an end to White rule in Rhodesia, now called Zimbabwe.
Africa and the End of White Rule
Although the immediate postwar period saw the decolonization of most of Africa, the remnants of colonial rule remained in southern Africa. There, Whites continued to espouse an ideology of racial superiority. In the later twentieth century, final decolonization occurred as these regimes gave way to African rule.
The last African territories under direct European rule were Portugal’s colonies in southern and western Africa. Portugal resisted the demands of African nationalist movements into the 1970s. The struggle to cling to its colonial territories exhausted Portugal’s resources, leading it to withdraw from Angola, Guinea-Bissau, and Mozambique. This ended formal colonialism in Africa.
However, White rule persisted elsewhere on the continent. In Rhodesia, a White minority resisted international pressure to cede to African rule. Neighboring African states helped finance a guerrilla movement led by Robert Mugabe, which ultimately brought an end to Rhodesia, now renamed Zimbabwe.
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South Africa was the final outpost of White rule, with a larger, richer, and more entrenched European minority.
Increasing pressure for end to apartheid
International Olympic Committee banned South African athletes from 1970
American students demanded divestment from South Africa investment
Economic sanctions
International pressure calling for the release of Nelson Mandela
Majority rule finally came to South Africa in 1994, with its first democratic election and Nelson Mandela as its first democratically elected president.
Leaders of independent Africa faced immense challenges in building stable political communities: local contests for political power, ethnic and religious rivalries, civil wars, and coups d’état.
South Africa and Nelson Mandela
The final holdout of White rule was South Africa. The White minority there was larger, richer, and more entrenched than in other places.
The apartheid system drew increasing international condemnation, putting pressure on the regime. South African athletes were banned from competing in the Olympics beginning in 1970. American university students led divestment campaigns, demanding that schools withdraw any investments in companies with ties to South Africa. Economic sanctions were applied, and international pressure mounted for the release of Nelson Mandela.
Ultimately, the regime decided that it was no longer possible to resist pressure from outside and from within, and began the process of transitioning to a democratic form of rule. The first democratic elections were held in 1994, which brought Mandela to power.
Despite these political gains, leaders of independent African states faced immense problems. Many new regimes were unstable. Civil and ethnic conflict exploded into civil wars in the 1990s, drawing military leaders into politics.
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Increasingly free movement of capital, commodities, people, and culture
International banking, expanded international trade, population migrations, and technical breakthroughs in communication led to increasing integration and new power arrangements.
Finance and trade
Global finance and deregulated markets
1970s: Governments in the First World eliminated fixed exchange rates.
Primary agents of financial activity were banks
International Monetary Fund became the most influential, especially in dealing with debt crises in the developing world.
Latin American and eastern European nations borrowed billions from First World banks.
When repayment proved difficult, the IMF bailed these governments out on the condition of reducing state management of the national economy.
Tariffs and other barriers to foreign trade crumbled.
Unleashing Globalization
As the end of the Cold War removed obstacles to international integration, the movement of capital, commodities, people, and culture increased dramatically. These movements have existed throughout world history, but never on such a dramatic scale. At the same time, there were deep inequalities in access to the benefits of exchange. Several factors contributed to these new forms of integration and inequality: international banking, expanded international trade, population migrations, and technical breakthroughs in communications.
In the 1970s, there were major transformations in the world’s financial system. In response to America’s budget and debt crisis, Richard Nixon took the dollar off the gold standard, untethering other currencies from the American dollar. This gave international financiers greater freedom from national regulators.
The primary agents of increasing global financial activity were big banks, mostly based in London, New York, and Tokyo. The most influential international financial organization was the International Monetary Fund (IMF), created after World War II to lend funds to states in need.
The IMF became influential in dealing with debt crises in the Third World and the former socialist states, now lumped together as “the developing world.” The IMF offered loans to these cash-strapped governments. In the 1980s, facing a wave of defaults, international banks and the IMF bailed these governments out on condition that they reorganize their finances and reduce state management of the economy.
All across the world, tariffs and other barriers to foreign trade crumbled, while states privatized industries and waves of investment poured into newly reformed economies.
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New technologies and institutions allowed more investors and traders to participate in global finances.
The Internet and online trading accelerated capital mobility.
Globalization increased commercial and financial interdependence.
Accelerated capital mobility created enormous volatility and financial panics when Mexican economy went into paralysis in 1994
United States emerged as world’s largest borrower, much owed to China
Financial integration increased commercial interdependence.
Value of goods and services exchanged increased tenfold from 1973 to 1998
International divisions of labor shifted.
More and more Third World countries became suppliers of manufactured goods, not primarily raw materials.
Economic integration spurred the rise of East Asia’s economic prominence.
Share of world exports doubled in this period
East Asian countries and Japan became major investors abroad.
China began its rapid economic expansion.
Effects of Integrated Networks
New technologies and institutions allowed more investors and traders to participate in global finances. The Internet and online trading were major factors in increasing the movement of capital across borders.
But the new changes also caused problems, exemplified by Mexico’s economic crisis in 1994. Although the United States bailed out the Mexican economy with the largest international loan in history, the United States itself was in fact deeply in debt itself. As the world’s largest borrower, the United States owed much to China, which had a huge trade surplus with the United States.
Financial integration also increased commercial dependence. More than ever before, consumers were buying basic goods imported from other countries. This had always been true of smaller regions, but this pattern increased in the 1980s. As the international division of labor shifted, countries like China, India, and Brazil, with cheap and skilled labor, were able to undersell their competitors.
The most remarkable global shift occurred in East Asia, led initially by Japan. East Asia’s share of world trade doubled during this period, as growing economies like China rapidly expanded. At the same time, East Asian countries became major investors abroad.
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Lower trade barriers and industrialization in developing countries increased the pressures of global competition.
Some regions formed regional trading blocs.
Maastricht Treaty established European Union in 1993
European Union initially a trading and financial bloc, but evolved into a supranational organization
Uniform currency 2002 (euro)
2020, European Union had 27 members, 19 using euro
Trade blocs form in South America and between United States, Mexico, and Canada
International trade increased but became increasingly unequal.
High-tech and knowledge-based goods became ever more important exports from the world’s richest countries.
Poor nations remained locked in the production of low-tech goods and raw materials.
Regional Trade Blocs and Growing Inequalities
As trade barriers lowered and industrialization increased, national economies in poor countries felt the pressures of global competition. One solution to this was the formation of regional trade blocs. This was intended to create larger markets for bloc members to help them stay competitive.
One of the most complete regional integrations was the European Union, formed by the Maastricht Treaty in 1993. It began as an agreement to lower trade barriers and harmonize member-states’ international trade policy, but developed into a political union that encroached on individual state sovereignty. The European Union took a further step toward integration in 2002 with the adoption of a single currency, the euro. However, some states declined to adopt the currency. Trade blocs also formed between South American countries as well as between Canada, the United States, and Mexico.
As international trade exploded, inequality increased. Richer countries increasingly focused on exporting high-tech and knowledge-based goods, locking poorer countries into the production of low-tech goods and raw materials.
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Migration, always a major feature in world history, became more pronounced in the twentieth century.
120 million migrants from Asia, Africa, and Latin America left poor countries for jobs in wealthier countries
Migration
Migration has always been a major feature of world history. In the twentieth century, it became more pronounced. By 2000, there were 120 million migrants from Asia, Africa, and Latin America scattered across 152 countries.
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Flow of migration often followed former paths, particularly of colonization
Often moves are from poorer, rural areas to urban areas
Lagos, Nigeria, grew from 41,000 people in 1900 to 10 million in 2000, with projections of a doubling by 2025.
People moved from less-developed to more-developed countries to seek opportunity.
The United States reversed previously closed borders with major immigration reform in 1965.
2000: 27 million immigrants lived there, nearly 10 percent of population
Mexicans, the single largest group of immigrants from 1970 to 2000
Asians’ numbers also surged, accounting for 40 percent of all immigrants to the United States in the 1990s.
Patterns of Migration
Flows of migration often followed the contours of historical colonial and political ties. Places in North America and Europe that had colonial dependencies often saw an influx of migrants from those places in the twentieth century. Where countries had close diplomatic ties, migration usually followed. This was especially true of Germany and Turkey, Japan and South Korea, and Canada and Hong Kong.
Global migration was often an extension of internal migration patterns from rural areas to urban centers. In Lagos, the capital of Nigeria, migrants swelled the population from 41,000 in 1900 to 10 million in 2000. In general, people moved from less-developed areas, seeking opportunity in more-developed areas.
One of the biggest changes in world migration patterns occurred in the United States. In the early twentieth century, the United States had mostly closed its borders to migration from both the Atlantic and Pacific. In 1965, it enacted a major immigration reform that led to a surge of migrants. The single largest group of immigrants from 1970 to 2000 came from Mexico, whereas Asians accounted for 40 percent of all migrants in the 1990s.
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Many immigrants began as temporary or guest workers.
Economic downturn in 1970s and resulting high unemployment made integration difficult
Integration also difficult in Japan; Japan was reluctant to recruit minorities who might then settle, leading to dire labor shortages
Temporary Migrants
Many migrants intended to move only temporarily. In the 1950s and 1960s, many southern Europeans migrated to northern countries. As southern Europe became increasingly wealthy, these countries themselves became destinations for migrants from the Middle East, Africa, and eastern Europe. The economic downturn in the 1970s often made integration difficult.
Japan also struggled to incorporate immigrants. In need of greater labor supply for its expanding economy, Japan encouraged migrants to come temporarily as “guest workers.” The Japanese government feared that these immigrants might settle permanently, but this reluctance sometimes led to dire labor shortages. Other East Asian countries like Hong Kong, Taiwan, and Malaysia also became hosts for temporary migrants.
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Map 21.3 | World Migration, 1918–1998
Map 21.3 | World Migration, 1918–1998
The world’s population continued to grow and move around in the twentieth century.
• Looking at this map, identify the countries that had the greatest increase in foreign-born people as a percentage of total population.
• Compare the areas of most rapid population growth during the nineteenth century with the parts of the world that, according to this map, had the highest percentage of foreign-born people in the twentieth century. What are the similarities and differences?
• During the twentieth century, which parts of the world were the sending areas, and which were the receiving territories? See also Map 18.1.
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Often, migrants and refugees only partially accommodated, with many fully excluded from host societies
Movement of people heightened national concerns about the ethnic makeup of political communities
Forced migrations a major problem, with refugees fleeing civil war and torture
Discrimination often led to violent conflicts.
Debates over religion and culture, such as French provision against wearing Muslim headscarves in public and English-only movement in United States
Resident Noncitizens and Refugees
Often, migrants were only partially accommodated. Many were fully excluded from host societies. Hundreds of thousands of migrants lived in foreign countries without rights. Changing demographics led to new debates over the ethnic makeup of political communities.
Forced migrations remained a major problem. In contrast to earlier patterns of forced migration, like the Atlantic slave trade, migrants in the twentieth century were often fleeing war and political violence.
Especially during times of economic downturn, discrimination led to violent conflicts. Conflicts also erupted over religion and culture, such as French attempts to ban Muslim headscarves, or the English-only movement in the United States.
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Migrations and new technologies created a more global entertainment culture.
Globalization in this domain has often been equated with Americanization.
Less global diversity now, but on the level of the individual’s everyday experience, the potential for experiencing global diversity has greatly increased
Global Culture
Migrations and new technologies created a more global entertainment culture. Globalization in this sense is often equated with Americanization, as American forms of pop culture have spread throughout the world. But American forms of entertainment also received influence from across the globe. On one hand, cultural globalization has resulted in a reduction of cultural diversity, at least when compared with previous centuries. On the other hand, an individual’s potential for experiencing global diversity has greatly increased.
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New media, such as cassette tapes and television, became key in distributing entertainment around the world.
Not just American entertainment exports; Latin American and Indian shows also found world audiences
Hollywood remains the leading producer of films in the world.
Television, in particular, globalized sports.
Soccer has become an international passion.
NBA and Nike made Michael Jordan the world’s best-known athlete in the late twentieth century.
New Media
New media were key in distributing entertainment throughout the world, forming a global mass culture. America was not the only exporter of culture. Brazilian TV dramas made their way to Mexican stations, while Latin American music and television shows were brought to the United States where large Spanish-speaking populations existed. Bombay also produced its fair share of content for British television, and continues to produce nearly twice as many films per year as Hollywood.
In terms of revenue, Hollywood remains the leading producer of films in the world, employing a global cast of actors and sending films around the world.
The globalizing power of television affected worldwide audiences for sports. Soccer, in particular, became known as the international sport. Major American sports, like basketball, also acquired worldwide followings.
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Migration and exchange were important driving forces of world cultures.
Migrants brought musical tastes to new destinations and borrowed others.
Reggae, born among Jamaica’s Rastafarians in the 1960s, became popular in large cities like London and Toronto, where West Indian communities had moved.
Reggae invoked Black countercultural sensibility and calls for a return to African roots.
Bob Marley became a folk hero, a symbol of resistance.
American rap music emerged out of this genre, eventually spreading to Latin America and Asia.
Latin music spread to the United States
Globally, popular culture stressed countercultural messages
Baseball was popularized worldwide
Cultural Exchanges
Technology was not the only driving force behind the integration of world cultures. Migration and exchange were also important factors.
As people moved around, they brought their own musical tastes with them, and often combined those tastes with the music they encountered in new destinations. One example of this is reggae, which spread from Jamaica in the 1960s to London and Toronto, and became a symbol of resistance for Black communities in Brazil and South Africa.
The spread of reggae to the United States influenced the birth of rap in the late 1970s, which eventually spread beyond Black communities to Latino and Asian rappers. Latin music also made its way to the United States.
Globally, popular culture stressed countercultural messages through music and TV shows. Sports was globalized as well. American baseball teams began recruiting from countries in Asia and Latin America.
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World cultures did not completely replace national and local cultures.
Technology and migration reinforced the appeal of “national” cultural icons.
National celebrities often attain large followings among emigrant groups abroad.
Inexpensive new technology has introduced these stars to more and more people.
Umm Kalthum, Egyptian popular singer, was given a state funeral.
Local Culture (1 of 2)
While world cultures became increasingly more homogenous, this did not erase the appeal of national and local cultures. New media often reinforced the appeal of national celebrities, especially among those who emigrated to other countries. One example of this is Umm Kalthum, an Egyptian singer who became a favorite of Arab middle classes via radio. When she died, she was given an unprecedented state funeral.
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The market for world cultures is competitive and has led to more room for diverse performers.
The triumph of Black performers, athletes, and writers was a major breakthrough.
It also shattered some sexual biases, with Madonna, and gay and bisexual performers.
Still some local limitations to cultural breakthroughs, such as female artists wearing veils in the Middle East.
Local Culture (2 of 2)
The market for world cultures grew increasingly competitive. Performers innovated, challenging biases and norms. Since the 1970s, the rise of global culture has supported the triumph of Black performers, athletes, and writers. Global pop culture has also shattered some sexual biases, as gay and bisexual artists gained popularity.
Beyond Europe and North America, challenges to convention had limits. For example, in the Middle East some female artists continued to wear veils. Still, around the world, relatively homogenous local cultures gave way to a wider variety of cultural forms.
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The World Wide Web was created by Tim Berners-Lee in the 1980s.
The 1990s saw the first commercial browsers navigating the Internet.
Unprecedented ease of global communication
Changes created a new generation of wealth
Dot-com stocks swept world stock markets
Software and Internet technologies prone to monopolization with acquisitions of smaller companies
Computer parts manufactured in Mexico and Taiwan
Generation of software engineers trained in India
The communications revolution integrated wealthier communities together around the world while intensely widening the gap between the rich and the poor.
Low-income economies became poorer not just from lack of capital but also from lack of access to knowledge and new media.
Communications
Computer technology drove a revolution in global communications. In the late 1980s, Tim Berners-Lee experimented with a means of pooling data stored on various computers, ultimately creating the World Wide Web. In the early 1990s, commercial browsers came into use and the Internet increased in popularity.
The dramatically increased ability to communicate worldwide created a new generation of wealth that eclipsed older manufacturing companies. Investment in Internet companies—called dot-coms—swept world stock markets.
The new communications revolution was not driven purely by the United States. Computers and chips were manufactured in Mexico and Taiwan, and technology institutes in India trained a new generation of software engineers.
Software and Internet technology firms were prone to monopolization as they often took over smaller companies. Although the Internet created vast new potential for wealth, it also reinforced deepening inequalities. People living outside of major cities, especially in low-income countries, had no access to the Internet. Poverty came to mean not only lack of capital, but also lack of access to information.
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Globalization
Provided access to huge array of goods and services
Deepened inequalities
Families changed; life spans increased
Education and health increasingly important to societal status
Dramatic population expansion
Climate change
Characteristics of the New Global Order
On one hand, globalization dramatically increased access to a previously unimaginable array of goods and services. On the other hand, it deepened inequalities. The structures of families changed, while improvements in medicine increased life spans. Education and good health determined status in society like never before. At the same time, the global population expanded rapidly, placing new pressures on economies and on the natural environment. While many parts of the world increased consumption, others struggled with famine and the consequences of environmental change.
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The world’s population doubled in 40 years to 6 billion in 2000.
Mortality declined, especially among children, and life expectancy increased.
Population growth not equal worldwide
In Europe, population growth slowed.
North America’s population quadrupled mainly due to immigration.
Population booms in the twentieth century were in Africa (550 percent), Asia (400 percent), and Latin America (700 percent).
Both China and India have populations of over 1 billion.
By 1980, the world’s largest cities were Tokyo, Mexico City, São Paulo, Cairo, Calcutta, and Jakarta.
The Demography of Globalization (1 of 2)
Between 1960 and 2000, the world’s population doubled from 3 billion to over 6 billion. This exponential population growth was spurred on by two important factors: declining mortality, especially among children, and increases in life expectancy rates.
Population growth was not equal worldwide. In Europe, population growth peaked around 1900. From that point onward, it increased only very slowly. North America, by contrast, quadrupled. This was mainly due to immigration.
Population growth in Africa, Asia, and Latin America was explosive. In Africa, populations increased by 500 percent, in Asia by 400 percent and in Latin America by 700 percent. In China and India, the population passed the billion-person mark. By 1980, all of the world’s largest cities were in Asia, Africa, and Latin America.
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Population growth is slowest in rich societies and strongest in poor ones, but in all societies birthrates have declined.
China resorted to a “one-child family” policy to hold down population growth.
The one-child policy led to an increased imbalance of the sex ratio partly because of prenatal sex selection due to availability of expensive ultrasound scanners.
The Demography of Globalization (2 of 2)
Population growth was slowest in rich countries and strongest in poor countries. However, since the 1970s, birthrates have declined in all countries. China took drastic measures to keep population growth at bay. In 1979, China instituted a “one-child” policy, rewarding families for compliance and punishing them for transgression. Because of the traditional preference for sons and the advent of ultrasound technology, prenatal sex selection resulted in an increasing gender imbalance in China.
However, in large part, declining family size resulted from choice. Especially in rich countries, women often delayed having children.
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Map 21.4 | World Population Increases, 1950–1997
Map 21.4 | World Population Increases, 1950–1997
The world’s population more than doubled between 1950 and 1997, rising from approximately 2.5 billion to nearly 6 billion.
• Which countries had the largest population increases over these five decades?
• Why do you suppose these countries experienced such high population increases?
• According to your reading, why did western Europe and Russia have the lowest population increases?
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Definitions of families have become more fluid.
Divorce rates have increased, especially in the west.
Europeans abandoned nuclear family conventions, choosing to live together without getting married.
In the United States, only half of children lived with both parents.
Aging
Longer life spans have also affected family development.
Populations in industrialized nations have “grayed.”
Especially true in Europe and Japan
New challenges for families, requiring increasing dependence on the state for caregiving and financial aid in some areas
The aged faced bleaker futures in Africa, with rare publicly supported pension funds and fewer family resources.
Families
In many places, the definition of families became more fluid. This trend also reflected women’s choices and the relationship between love and marriage. Divorce rates soared during this period, especially in the west. As marriages became less likely to survive, Europeans abandoned nuclear family conventions. Many couples chose to live together without getting married, especially in European countries where divorce remained difficult. In the United States in the 1990s, only half of children were living with both parents.
Longer life spans also affected family structures. Industrialized nations saw the “graying” of their populations as median ages increased and proportions of the population over age 65 grew. This was especially true in Europe and Japan. In Japan, the aging population combined with a plummeting birthrate that has led to population declines.
Longer periods of old age placed new pressures on families. Previously, old age was brief and the costs of unproductive family members were borne by communities and households. As people began to live longer, they increasingly needed their own savings and state pensions to survive.
In Africa, the aged faced bleaker futures. There, state pension funds were rare and families had fewer resources. At the same time, elderly people saw their social status decrease as society began to place more value on the young, especially those with western educations.
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The distribution of contagious disease reflects global inequities.
Disease controls, antibiotics, vaccinations, and healthy habits have reduced the spread of contagions.
What used to be universal afflictions centuries ago are now becoming limited to particular peoples.
For example, cholera, the result of inadequate water treatment, still breaks out in Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, and the Eastern Mediterranean.
New diseases such as HIV/AIDS (acquired immunodeficiency syndrome), which killed 12 million in its first two decades.
Treatment is expensive, leaving the poor and disadvantaged vulnerable.
Health
The spread of contagious diseases reflected global inequalities. As always, social status determined nutrition and healthy habits. By the late twentieth century, social status increasingly determined access to medicines as well.
Many of the diseases now confined to poorer parts of the world used to be universal afflictions. Over time, increased sanitary conditions in urban centers banished many common diseases, like cholera. However, this disease still continues to break out in parts of Latin America, sub-Saharan Africa, and the Eastern Mediterranean.
New diseases also made their appearance during this period. One of the most well-known is the HIV/AIDS epidemic that swept the world beginning in the 1970s, killing 12 million people. When the disease was originally discovered, it was found to be mostly prevalent among gay men, causing it to be stigmatized as “gay cancer” and receiving little attention. But, as it spread to heterosexuals and public awareness increased, public health campaigns and new drugs helped stabilize the disease. These were effective mostly in North America and Europe, where many people could afford the expensive new drugs. People in less-developed areas were more vulnerable.
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Access to education has increasingly separated the haves from the have-nots.
Men have been typically favored for educational opportunities.
Sub-Saharan African and Indian literacy rates: 63 and 64 percent for men, 39 and 40 percent for women in 2000
In the Arab world, the literacy gap between men and women decreased somewhat by the end of the twentieth century.
Low levels of literacy and depressed levels for women impede each region’s efforts to combat poverty.
Gender bias persists in rich societies.
Some positive results of efforts to ensure equal access: in United States, more than half of college degrees went to women by late 1980s
Yet, 70 percent of China’s illiterate population were female in 2000.
Education
Another factor shaping global inequalities was education. Differing access to education widened gaps between countries and also between genders within the same country. Men were typically favored for educational opportunities. In India and sub-Saharan Africa, the literacy rates for men were about 20 percent higher than those for women. In the Arab world, the literacy gap between men and women decreased toward the end of the twentieth century, but low levels of literacy around the world impeded each regions’ efforts to combat poverty.
Gender bias persisted in rich countries as well. But, throughout the twentieth century, as women and girls pressed for equal access to education, there were some positive results. By the 1980s, more than half of U.S. college degrees went to women.
Women in China made even greater advances toward educational equality. But, when China’s market reforms began in the late 1970s, women’s access to basic education actually regressed. Especially in rural areas, families reverted their resources to educating sons. By 2000, up to 70 percent of China’s illiterate population were female.
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Map 21.5 | HIV Infection across the World, 1999
Map 21.5 | HIV Infection across the World, 1999
HIV, which leads to AIDS, spread across the whole world within two decades, providing further evidence of global interconnectedness. The outbreak began in Africa.
• Where in Africa have the highest rates of HIV infection occurred?
• Which countries outside the African continent have had the highest rates of infection, and why is this so?
• Which countries have the lowest rates of HIV infection, and why is this so?
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More women held jobs but lacked full equality.
Job discrimination, child-rearing
The percentage of women at the top of corporate pyramids does not reflect their participation in the workforce or their college graduation rates.
Working outside the home has challenged traditional roles in the home.
Migrants who are mothers move for jobs and send money home for their children.
Feminism
Feminist movements emerged in Europe and North America in the 1960s, then became global in the 1970s.
Women struggled to ensure that they were included in the opportunities offered by globalization.
Protests against Mercosur agreement in mid-1990s
Fourth World Conference on Women, Beijing, 1995
Work
More women held jobs outside of the home in this period but continued to struggle to achieve full equality in the workplace. Women’s participation in the workplace reached a stable level in the 1980s. But the percentage of women in positions of corporate power remained severely limited. This limitation persisted despite increasing levels of college education and workforce participation.
Beginning in the 1960s, feminist movements emerged in Europe and America. In the 1970s, the movement became global. In 1975, the first truly international women’s forum took place in Mexico City.
Women took active stances against workplace discrimination and struggled to ensure that they were included in the benefits of globalization. After the Mercosur free trade pact was signed in South America, governments started to enforce laws against the traffic of goods across the river between Argentina and Paraguay. This traffic was mostly controlled by women, who protested by occupying a bridge used by male truckers transporting Mercosur goods.
In 1995, the Fourth World Conference on Women was held in Beijing, where delegates from more than 180 countries shared strategies on the promotion of women’s rights.
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Agricultural production
The challenge facing many societies is how to feed increasing populations.
The “green revolution,” or the use of chemicals, vastly increased yields.
Genetically engineered crops have also expanded yields.
These agricultural gains have not been spread evenly around the globe.
American farmers are the biggest beneficiaries, producing one-ninth of the world’s wheat and two-fifths of its corn.
Chinese are also big beneficiaries.
Other areas have opened up new lands to cultivation.
Destroying environment in search of new lands (Amazon River basin)
Production has not kept pace with the population in all lands.
Since the 1970s, Africa has experienced major food shortages.
Famines are human-made, with much of this problem stemming from inadequate government agricultural policies as well as by-products of global inequality.
Production and Consumption in the Global Economy
Societies faced the challenge of feeding rapidly growing populations. Changing agrarian practices helped meet this challenge in some countries. The “green revolution” in the 1950s saw the increased use of chemicals in agriculture, helping increase yields. At the same time, scientists experimented with the production of genetically modified crops.
The gains made from these developments were not evenly distributed. American farmers, in large part, have benefited the most. However, China’s decollectivizing agricultural reforms also boosted production.
In other places, people opened up new lands for cultivations. The most infamous agricultural expansion was in the Amazon, where migrants cleared large swaths of the rainforest using fire, thereby damaging biodiversity and contaminating the environment.
In some places, production was not able to keep up with population growth. Africa, in particular, suffered heavily from famine beginning in the 1970s. In large part, famines were caused by governments that ignored the needs of the rural population. At the same time, the use of land for export crops, demanded in part by the IMF, worsened the problem.
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Map 21.6 | Food Consumption and Famine since the 1940s
Map 21.6 | Food Consumption and Famine since the 1940s
There is perhaps no better indicator of the division of the world into rich and poor, haves and have-nots, than average food consumption and famine.
• Which parts of the world have had the most difficulty in feeding their populations?
• What have been some of the causes of famine and malnourishment in these regions?
• How much have famine and malnourishment been due to human actions, and how much to climate and other matters over which human beings have little control?
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Rising consumption of water, oil, and other natural resources
Conflicts over oil in 1980s–1990s
Concerns over pollution control and the disposal of waste products.
Individual nations cannot solve environmental issues.
The United States consumes a disproportionate amount of the world’s resources.
Reciprocal agreements between Canada and the United States took shape in the 1980s as Canadians saw lakes fill up with acid rain.
Europeans also negotiated regional environmental treaties.
Many companies just moved to other countries, continuing to pollute.
Other problems include global warming and the greenhouse effect, ocean pollution, and declining biological diversity.
International meetings are held more frequently to try to combat these problems, but a global accord has not been reached.
Natural Resources and the Environment (1 of 2)
Consumption of natural resources became a matter of international concern in this period. Rising demands for oil led to conflicts in the Middle East, where the United States intervened in 1990 to prevent an Iraqi conquest of Kuwait.
Countries around the world battled the problems of environmental degradation, recognizing that individual nations could not solve a problem that was global in nature.
Inequalities were evident in the issue of environmental degradation and protection. The United States began using far more resources than the rest of the world, especially water. It also became one of the world’s leading polluters. In the 1980s, Canada became concerned with increases in acid rain and signed reciprocal agreements with the United States to reduce sulfuric emissions. Europeans also signed regional environmental protection agreements.
However, as rich countries cleaned up their environments, polluting industries moved to poorer countries where regulations were more lax and people were eager for jobs.
International meetings on environmental problems became more frequent as global warming, ocean pollution, and declining biodiversity became major issues.
Although in some places environmentalists have succeeded in passing regulations, rich countries often simply export their pollution problems, sending hazardous waste to developing countries.
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Efforts by environmentalists are often difficult as high energy use is often seen as a necessity of economic life.
Many advanced countries now export hazardous waste to developing countries.
Chernobyl disaster in 1986
Showed that environmental problems do not respect borders
Natural Resources and the Environment (2 of 2)
Although in some places environmentalists have succeeded in passing regulations, rich countries often simply export their pollution problems, sending hazardous waste to developing countries.
Environmental problems gained urgency after the meltdown of the Soviet nuclear reactor at Chernobyl in 1986. This catastrophe affected numerous countries in eastern and northern Europe, showing that environmental problems do not respect borders.
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Supranational organizations
Globalization has posed major problems for nation-states, which supranational organizations have dealt with.
A variety of international bodies have come into existence since World War II that have impinged on the autonomy of all but the most powerful states.
The World Bank and the International Monetary Fund
Dispersed funds and expertise around the world but at the same time have forced governments to implement often-resented policies in return—even accusations of imperialism
Nongovernmental organizations (NGOs) pursue goals autonomously rather than through state power.
Often championed human rights causes, as the official supranational organizers could not do it in time
The United Nations adopted the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, quite late, because its members were the abusers in some cases.
Amnesty International significant NGO example
Citizenship in the Global World
Numerous supranational organizations came into existence after World War II. After the 1970s, these organizations had grown in scope and power. In many cases, these organizations had more influence over people’s lives than their own national governments. Still, they were unable to stop the violence that erupted around the world in this period.
The international bodies that have emerged since World War II have impinged on the autonomy of nearly all nation-states, except that of their most powerful members. Two of the most well-known of these institutions are the World Bank and the International Monetary Fund. The World Bank was created to provide capital for large development projects, whereas the IMF existed to help poorer countries improve their economies. Although these institutions have dispersed funds and expertise around the world, they often gave these on the condition that countries reform their economies. Many of these reforms, which often included privatizing state industries, were deeply unpopular. Some began to argue that the World Bank and the IMF represented a new form of imperialism.
International NGOs reached a new level of influence in the 1970s, championing human rights or highlighting environmental problems. NGOs played an important role in promoting human rights, as other international organizations like the United Nations were unable to do so. Despite ratifying the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in 1948, many U.N. member states remained authoritarian.
Amnesty International, in particular, played a leadership role in the human rights cause, especially in the context of dictatorial repression in some Latin American countries in the later twentieth century.
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International organizations and NGOs failed to prevent violence at the end of the Cold War.
In the Balkans, ethnic groups fought for control of regions after the collapse of communist Yugoslavia.
International agencies could not bolster public authority, and civil war broke out.
Rwandan genocide, when Hutus (majority) massacred Tutsis (minority) in 1994
800,000 Tutsis killed in 100 days
Failure of international community and United States to prevent it
Some societies have tried to overcome political violence.
Argentina, El Salvador, Guatemala, and South Africa have established “truth” commissions to inquire about human rights abuses.
Violence
The end of the Cold War often produced power vacuums that could explode into violence. When this happened, international organizations and NGOs often failed to effectively intervene.
Two examples from the 1990s are especially well known. In the Balkans, after the state of Yugoslavia collapsed, ethnic groups fought each other for control of territory. International agencies were unable to bolster public authority. When they failed, simmering conflicts exploded into civil war and ethnic cleansing between the former Yugoslavia’s many ethnic groups.
Another example is the Rwandan genocide. In 1994, tensions between Hutus and Tutsis intensified. The United Nations sent peacekeeping troops, but failed to prevent the outbreak of a genocide that killed 800,000 Tutsis in 100 days.
Other societies have tried to put political violence behind them. In South Africa and Latin American countries that transitioned from dictatorships to democracies, the new regimes often established “truth commissions.” These organizations investigated the abuses of the previous regimes and were seen as essential to the legitimacy of new democracies.
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Hindu nationalism
Religion often provided a way to reimagine the nation-state.
In India, Hindu nationalism offered a communal identity for a country rapidly transformed by the forces of globalization.
In the 1980s, the Indian government deregulated the economy and allowed for greater market mechanisms.
These reforms widened the gap between the rich and the poor.
Lower classes and castes formed new political parties to challenge the elite.
Hindu militants promoted religion to fill the role once occupied by the secular state.
The Hindu nationalist party, or Indian People’s Party, Bharatiya Janata Party (BJP), was an alliance of Hindu organizations devoted to making India a Hindu state.
BJP came to power in the late 1990s.
Religious Foundations of Politics
In many regions, people wanted religion to provide the basis for political communities. Religion often provided a way to reimagine the nation-state, even as the nation-state was being challenged by the rise of supranational organizations.
In India, Hindu nationalism gained popularity in the 1980s. As the country pursued a program of market reforms, inequalities grew between lower classes and castes and the rising middle class. Lower classes combined to create new parties that challenged the elites. Hindu nationalists offered a solution to a fragmenting society. They advocated that the state should promote a common Hindu identity, with members of other religions relegated to a lower status.
A chief beneficiary of this new form of politics was the BJP, a Hindu nationalist party that came to power in the late 1990s.
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Religion also provided a way to resist American-dominated globalization.
Many people in the Islamic Middle East were critical of the intrusion of western-style materialism and unchecked individualism in their societies.
The most revolutionary Islamic movement arose in Iran in 1979, where clerics removed the western-backed shah.
Shah Mohammad Reza Pahlavi had enjoyed U.S. military support since America helped to place him on the throne in 1953.
The shah benefited from oil revenues, but the repressive state’s uneven distribution of income, brutal intelligence service, police oppression, and the royal family’s ostentatious lifestyle fueled widespread discontent.
The most powerful critique came from the mullahs (Muslim scholars or religious teachers) who aligned themselves with Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, who emerged as the leader.
Khomeini established a theocratic state that returned Iran to Islamic values.
Islamic Conservatism
Religion also provided a way to resist the forces of globalization, which many saw as American-dominated.
One of the most powerful challenges came from the Middle East, where conservative Muslims were concerned that globalization was bringing unchecked materialism and individualism.
The most revolutionary of these movements emerged in Iran, where a group of clerics removed the U.S.-backed shah. The shah had enjoyed U.S. military support since the early 1950s, benefiting from oil revenues and keeping his hold on power through brutal intelligence and police forces.
Discontent exploded when a group of mullahs, or Muslim clerics, allied around Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini and challenged the shah’s rule. After the shah fled, Khomeini established a theocratic Islamic state. Despite some resentment of the enforcement of conservative Islam, many were proud that Iran had found a way to challenge globalization based on principles other than those drawn from the west.
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In the United States, religion became a powerful force in politics during the 1970s, as membership and activism of conservative, fundamentalist Protestant churches eclipsed mainstream denominations.
Conservative Protestant groups railed against secularizing trends in American society, especially those of the 1960s liberation movements and shifting sexual and familial relations.
Religious Conservatism in the United States
Religious conservativism also emerged as a potent force in the United States. After the 1970s, the membership and activism of conservative, fundamentalist Protestant churches overtook that of traditional denominations. These Protestant fundamentalists insisted on literal interpretations of the Bible and attacked many of the social trends that had emerged in the liberation movements of the 1960s. Religious conservatives especially targeted public leaders who they saw as promoting secular values.
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Democracy spread toward the end of the twentieth century.
More societies embraced the notion that people had a right to choose their representatives, but democracy didn’t triumph everywhere.
China is an important holdout.
Market reforms under Deng Xiaoping, who succeeded Mao as leader of the Communist Party, raised living standards by the late 1980s.
Widening gaps between the rich and poor and public awareness of corruption in the government triggered discontent.
In 1989, 100,000 protesters converged on Tiananmen Square.
Regime declared martial law
On June 3, the government ordered a military crackdown and turned guns on the people.
Mexican democracy finally triumphed in 2000.
Abuse of democratic rights previously had fallen hardest on poor communities and those with large numbers of indigenous peoples.
Acceptance of and Resistance to Democracy
Democracy spread toward the end of the twentieth century. In places like South Africa, Russia, and Guatemala, political affairs increasingly involved elections.
However, democracy did not take root everywhere. China was an important holdout. After Mao died in 1976, Deng Xiaoping embarked on a series of liberalizing reforms that brought unprecedented numbers of Chinese people out of poverty. At the same time, the ruling Communist Party did not allow democratic reforms to follow the economic reforms. However, in 1986, popular discontent over growing inequality led to massive demonstrations in Tiananmen Square in Beijing. The regime crushed the demonstrations by declaring martial law and firing on the crowds.
Mexican democracy triumphed with the election of Vicente Fox in 2000. Until that time, Mexican rulers had often rigged elections to stay in office, maintaining corrupt regimes.
The Mexican election was but one example of several successful attempts at democratization that occurred in the later twentieth century.
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By the end of the century, the world was vastly different from what it was in the thirteenth-century.
For the first time in history, the world felt as if there was a global culture, although local traditions remained vibrant.
Increasingly, the nation-state or any single level of community life no longer defined collective identities.
New technologies, new methods of production and investment, and the greater importance of health and education created new possibilities and greater inequalities.
The disparities between those who participate in global networks and those who remain on the margins are greater than ever before.
Thus, as the world has come together, it has also grown farther apart.
Conclusion
By the end of the twentieth century, the world had become vastly different from the thirteenth century. The world was once a series of communities set apart, but by the twentieth century similarities in food, entertainment, clothing, and family life had developed worldwide. For the first time, it appeared that a truly global culture had developed.
Local traditions remained vibrant, even while supranational organizations ensured that the nation-state no longer defined collective identities. At the same time, global trade and exchange offered communities around the world the same kind of products.
New technologies, new methods of production, and the greater importance of health and education created new possibilities. At the same time, inequalities became sharper. Even as the world was knitted together into more integrated networks, unprecedented numbers of people were placed at the margins.
In this way, as the world has come together, it has also grown apart along ever-deeper lines.
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https://digital.wwnorton.com/worldstogether6
This concludes the Lecture Slide Set for Chapter 21 WORLDS TOGETHER, WORLDS APART SIXTH EDITION
